The Drum Beat 491: Virtual Change, Part II - ICT4D Indicators
How do we measure the impact of information and communication technology (ICT)-based social change interventions, and within which framework would those indicators work? This question is at the centre of a February 2009 paper, written by Warren Feek of The Communication Initiative and published by FAO's Research and Extension Division, Natural Resources and Environment Department. "Virtual Change: Indicators for Assessing the Impact of ICTs in Development Research and Extension Division" extends a series of core communication indicators for assessing the impact of activities and projects using ICTs for development and suggests appropriate evaluation methodologies for each indicator. Last week's Drum Beat culled out core elements of the paper, inviting readers to contribute their own examples of ICT impact indicators. Click here to access that issue.
The present issue, the second in the 2-part series, excerpts the 18 indicators from "Virtual Change" and provides examples from our network members to illustrate where the indicators have been found in practice. To access the full document, click here [PDF]. A summary of the document may be accessed within our Strategic Thinking section.
- THE CONTEXT for the proposed ICT impact indicators.
- Proposed "Virtual Change" ICT impact INDICATORS #1-8.
- Vote in a POLL on e-health research and development.
- Proposed "Virtual Change" INDICATORS #9-18.
- Become a CI ASSOCIATE.
CONTEXT: INDICATORS FOR ICT IMPACT
"...substantial resources have flowed from the international development community to support expansion of access to new technologies in financially poor countries and more extensive use of those technologies for improved development impact. But how...can we demonstrate that the efforts of a farmer or any of their peers around the world developing equally creative initiatives, have not been for naught? Accurate measurement requires 'astute' indicators..." ["Virtual Change," pages 1-2]
Warren Feek's series of indicators is grounded in 2 schools of thought: FAO's Participatory Rural Communication Appraisal approach, and the communication for development thinking facilitated by The Rockefeller Foundation. Both approaches share an emphasis on community engagement and management, participation, empowerment, local capacities, ownership, and negotiation between vested interest groups.
See Also: A Compendium on Impact Assessment of ICT-for-Development Projects
1. The ICTs are increasingly used for dialogue and debate.
Example from The CI Network:
Evaluating E-Consultations as Catalysts for the Youth HIV/AIDS Movement
by Santosh Vijaykumar, Joya Banerjee, and Elizabeth A. Baker
The case study describes and critically evaluates 2 e-consultations that the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GYCA) conducted with its members: 1) a participatory, shared decision-making approach to inform the GYCA's initial strategic plan; and 2) the development of programme materials and the strategic advocacy plan for the 2006 International AIDS Conference (IAC) in Toronto, Canada. "From this case study we learn that ICT tools can be effectively used to govern and mobilize social change to improve public health problems, especially those that are affected by multi-dimensional issues like gender, economics, race, and education..."
2. Policy and programme knowledge is increasingly communicated through the ICTs.
Example from The CI Network:
Impact Data - Text Me! Flash Me! Helpline - Ghana
Launched in September 2008, the Text Me! Flash Me! Helpline uses cell phone technology to provide most-at-risk populations (MARP) in Ghana with friendly and accessible HIV and AIDS information, referrals, and counseling services from qualified providers. While the initial pilot reached out to men who have sex with men (MSM) exclusively, it was expanded in February 2009 to include female sex workers (FSW). March 2009 data indicated that the number of callers disclosing their sexual orientation to a Helpline counselor increased each month. Almost 87% of survey respondents said that after their Helpline call session they shared the information they received with others; 40% forwarded the texts they received to others, and sent to an average of 8.6 other people (reasons cited for doing so included educating others, and wanting others to have the same information). Text Me! Flash Me! is a creation of the Ghana SHARP project (Strengthening HIV/AIDS Response Partnerships), which is managed by AED (Academy for Educational Development), through collaboration with the Ghana National AIDS Control Program, the Ghana Health Services (GHS), and 9 local non-governmental organisation (NGO) Implementing Partners, and with funding by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
3. There are increased levels of access to the ICT processes.
Example from The CI Network:
Fiber to Every Footpath: The Global Challenge of Equitable Access to the Information Highway
by Alan Finlay
This article captures the issues raised by presentations and discussions at an event held by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in November 2007. Participants discussed a range of issues that affect the take-up of technology on the ground, including affordability, energy efficiency, and open standards, which increase the potential for interoperability of software and hardware, and allow the community to use, change, and share technology more easily. Increasing the spectrum of bandwidth also increases the uptake of ICT. For example, a Tanzania project started with an expensive dial-up connection, which was replaced with VSAT satellite in 2004. "This brought new innovations to the local community, including building point-to-point long-distance wireless connections that linked small businesses and institutions, and the sharing of costs. Telecentre operators learned about setting up networks and trouble-shooting viruses, amongst other technical problems. From the start, ...the project was mostly independent of 'Northern experts': 'The knowledge stays within the organisation, which is a great source for sustainability.'"
4. The opinions and ideas expressed through ICT channels are increasingly those of the people most affected by development issues in any given context.
Example from The CI Network:
Children in Communication about Migration (CHICAM) - Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom (UK)
The aim of this action research project was to use media production and exchange - fostered through ICTs - as a research tool through which refugee and migrant children could represent their experiences of peer relations, school, family and intercultural communication. Working with 6 partnering organisations, the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media set up 6 media clubs for refugee and migrant children (ages 10-14) in the project countries. Together, participants created videos about their experiences, then viewed and commented on each other's work in the CHICAM intranet. A general discussion board there enabled the children to discuss the media on the site and have conversations with members of the other clubs - a form of intercultural exchange. The project culminated in a conference and DVD designed to inform European practice and policy development in the areas of children and media in relation to migration.
5. The people most affected by development issues in any given context increasingly dominate the physical use of the ICTs.
Example from The CI Network:
Participatory Video for Community-Led Research: Natural Resource Management in the Mountain Regions of Asia (NORMA) - China, India, Nepal, Pakistan
During the first phase of the project, community groups and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in India, Pakistan, and China took part in participatory video workshops. Insight reached out to nomads in Eastern Tibet and Ladakh and farmers in Pakistan and Ladakh, choosing relatively isolated communities living at high altitude. To facilitate this participation, in each country Insight facilitators collaborated with local NGO groups with a grassroots and participatory ethos, and with strong links to communities and local government. From these organisations, Insight trained 2 local facilitators in each country in Insight's participatory video methodologies. The second phase consisted of a multi-stakeholder workshop, where local representatives presented edited versions of the community-made participatory videos. Attendees then worked in small groups, using participatory methods to foster an equitable exchange of views between all the key stakeholders. The workshop was documented on film to enable villagers to see what impact their participatory video made on the attendees.
6. Technical experts on ICT for development increasingly respond to and implement the technical requirements voiced by those most affected.
Example from The CI Network:
Putting ICTs in the Hands of Women of Kanpur and "Chikan" Embroidery Workers of Lucknow
by Janice Brodman
The project evaluated here has established telecentres in several economically poor communities in the Lucknow/Kanpur area. "For example, the project plans to establish an ICT Center within the [Self Employed Women's Association, or] SEWA/Lucknow facilities to give the women access to ICT applications and modules. The project is also exploring a partnership with the Lucknow Association of Clothing Manufacturers...[, which] will introduce the Association to the use of ICT to support a systematic, innovative, 'personalized' approach for expanding the domestic market. The intention is to increase demand and returns, which will in turn increase pay scales for the workers. In addition, the project has worked with IIT [Indian Institute of Technology] to develop software with an engraver, which enables workers to develop low-cost molds quickly. The aim is to explore - and perhaps create - new markets. For example, rather than use only traditional patterns, the women can create new, more modern patterns and tailored patterns."
7. A minimum of 40% of the people involved in the management are directly affected by the development issues that the ICTs being mobilised are designed to address.
Example from The CI Network: UgaBYTES - Africa
UgaBYTES is a non-profit organisation that seeks to promote effective use and integration of ICTs for sustainable rural development in East Africa. It does this by supporting a network of telecentres across the East Africa region focussing mainly on rural and disadvantaged community groups. Support consists of capacity building and mentoring, sharing of information, research, and the promotion of ICTs for development. One of UgaBYTES' strategic objectives is to develop local capacity to manage, package and utilise information in multi-purpose telecentres of at least 60 advantaged trainee groups per year until 2010. To that end, one target is to maintain a lead in capacity development trends in local communities at 60 resource persons per year until 2010 with a multiplier effect of 1 trainee to 10 new trainees per year.
8. There are x (the number inserted here depends on the scale and nature of the programme being evaluated) examples in the last 12 months of the use of the ICTs for engaging people directly affected by development issues in overall programme management and/or policy development.
Example from The CI Network:
DDS Sangham Radio - India
Launched in Andhra Pradesh, India, on World Rural Women's Day (October 15) 2008, DDS Sangham Radio is a community radio station owned, managed, and operated exclusively by women from rural marginalised communities. This all-woman, all-Dalit sangham (community) radio station, which boasts the signature tune, "akka chillelu kudi podame (come sisters, let us go to the sangham radio)", is seen as the first "audible" voice of the state's Dalit women. Female reporters journey daily into various villages within the Medak district in search of stories that strike a chord with listeners. The radio jockeys who control the operations of the radio are two young women. "The women want to use this new media space to save their dying language and cultures, spread their message of sisterhood, ecological agriculture, women's control over seeds and a host of their issues."
Please VOTE in our current ICT4D Poll: In what direction should current e-Health research and technical development go?
Direction:
- Diagnosing through mobile phones.
- Certifying phone services as coming from authentic health providers.
- Building a menu of types of health providers (e.g., MD, traditional, clinic, pharmacy) into mobiles.
- Linking remote clinics with specialists.
- Linking communities in "the last mile" with hospital or clinic diagnosis and care centres.
VOTE and COMMENT click here.
9. The ICTs are increasingly used to draw relationships between different development issues.
Example from The CI Network:
GeoNetwork's InterMap Viewer - Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda
This internet-based global mapping system was developed jointly by the FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP) to fight hunger in developing countries. InterMap viewer provides agricultural information to decision-makers, allowing them to access satellite imagery, interactive maps, and spatial databases from GeoNetwork, a group of various development institutions from around the world. Organisers aim to help developing countries improve their ability to manage spatial information and to harmonise and improve their access to FAO's spatial databases of agriculture, forestry, fisheries and food security. "The tool promotes multidisciplinary approaches to sustainable development by allowing FAO, other UN agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and research institutions worldwide to share and distribute geographically-referenced data more easily". The system was tested and evaluated by 12 international and governmental agencies during field trials in Mozambique. These agencies, who work on "agriculture, food security and humanitarian issues have been using it since September 2003 to share information and avoid duplication."
10. The ICTs are increasingly used as a communication platform to identify and negotiate the specific strategic and technical support that development organisations require.
Example from The CI Network:
kiwanja.net
kiwanja.net is working with mobile practitioners, researchers, developers, bloggers, academics, development experts, and the general public to create a community of people interested in the use of mobile technology for positive social and environmental change in the developing world. kiwanja.net's mobility project is a collaborative project which brings together academics, technicians, educators, and practitioners in the information technology (IT) and mobile fields with the common goal of developing an empowering range of tools and resources to unlock the power of mobile applications development for users in the developing world. The focus is on two key areas: the development of mobile-based programming tools, and the development of an online mobile phone programming curriculum.
11. The ICTs are increasingly used as the source for the core information needed to better inform individual development activities.
Example from The CI Network:
Make Abuse Disappear Online Accountability Tool (MAD OAT) - South Africa
This child-centred project aims to raise awareness and improve the representation of child abuse in the South African media through the use of technology, a network of child abuse experts, and a reference group of children. The project, run by Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) (formerly "Media Monitoring Project", or MMP), uses a website application to alert members of the MAD OAT network to media reporting that infringes on children's rights and that requires a response. MAD OAT members then submit their responses, which are sent to the media and self-regulatory bodies. In addition, instances of best practice are highlighted and commented on by MAD OAT members.
12. The ICTs are increasingly used as the gathering point for like-focused organisations and groups.
Example from The CI Network:
iCamp - Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Western Europe
iCamp is a 3-year research and development project whose aim is to create an open virtual learning environment for university students across Europe by connecting different open source learning systems and tools and providing interoperability amongst them. The efforts have resulted in guidelines on paedagogical and technical issues as well as in an open-source software package that links student blogs and other social software tools into a virtual collaborative learning environment. To date, iCamp has carried out trials with a total of 136 students and 19 facilitators in 10 countries. As one example, social science and computer science students studying quantitative research methods took on the task of designing an online questionnaire. The social science students shaped the content while the IT students developed the software. In addition to the specifics of what students learn, organisers point out that iCAMP's approach prepares them to be more self-directed, teamwork-oriented, and technologically adept later in life.
13. The ICTs are increasingly used to highlight emerging symbols and images related to action on the development issue(s) in question.
Example from The CI Network:
Youth Creating and Communicating on HIV/AIDS - Global
This United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) web-based initiative invites young people of different cultures to work creatively together to express their perspectives on HIV/AIDS. After taking a brief online HIV/AIDS quiz, participants are automatically guided to a page displaying a variety of visual images and symbols related to HIV/AIDS. In order to enhance their interest and understanding of the issues, they are asked to create their own representative logo or symbol (like the red ribbon) to serve as a personal signature for their following creations and as a symbolic support for those living with HIV. Participants then produce at least 5 digital art pieces (e.g., photographs) that express their reflections on the specific HIV/AIDS-related topics they have chosen. The creative pieces are saved on a sound/image bank with a title in the form of a question. From that point in the game forward, interaction and collaboration are stressed. The final creation is a collaborative triptych, based on a sequence of illustrated questions/answers. Based on this shared creative experience, participants discuss the pieces with others in a dedicated forum on the website. The creations that win the most comments in each topic are will be displayed in various publications and at international youth forums and digital arts events around the world.
14. The ICTs are increasingly used to multiply strong symbols and/or images that are emerging from the struggle.
Example from The CI Network:
Communication Strategies used by Chilean Teenagers in the Educational Movement of May 2006
by Ana Rayén Condeza Dall'Orso
This study explores the strategies of action and the communication practices displayed between May and July of 2006 by more than a half million Chilean teenagers during the self-directed organising movement in favour of the right to a high-quality public education. The students created "image events, staged acts of protest designed for media dissemination" in massive street demonstrations and in public places. They adopted the penguin as a symbol and associated it with their movement through dressing as penguins in public school uniforms, causing the media to label the movement the "Penguin's Revolution". According to the study, "[t]hey distributed their speeches and actions ...through communication across a whole range of channels – evidence of their communication strategies and discourses can be found on Web pages, national and international online traditional media Web records (radio, television, and newspapers), Web logs (blogs), Fotologs, Wikipedia [an open and free internet encyclopaedia of user-generated information], emails, chats, You Tube and mobile phones."
15. The ICTs are increasingly used to both convey meaning and deepen debate and dialogue through the symbols and images presented.
Example from The CI Network:
Tales of Water - Guatemala, Mexico, Niger, Tanzania, Thailand
This multimedia project uses photographs, film, television, print materials, and the internet to enable children from around the world to share their experiences with water in daily living. By viewing people's positive experiences with water through the eyes of children from different regions of the world - that is, by turning a fresh eye on something ordinary - this project aims to communicate about water as a life-enhancing element, while at the same time recognising the pressing issues associated with it - or its loss. "To show what water means to a person, a group or a community, we just show it. That simple..." To highlight these stories, 5 different cultures and 5 different ways of living in relation to water will be covered. For each of the 5 major river basins, a 'story-line' will be defined beforehand. A photo book will be "illustrated" by the personal stories of the children being photographed. To support exchange among young people, an e-learning environment will be created with courses on each of the regions. Participants will be asked to create music, plays, drawings, pictures, stories, poems, or symbols that visualise these conditions. To share these experiences with the World Water Forum IV (WW4F) in Mexico in 2006, teams composed of university students studying multimedia or film created 5 short film documentaries showing the daily living conditions of children in the selected areas from a child's perspective and in a positive manner, in an effort to inspire both children and their families and to stimulate viewers to question the "normal" abundance and use of water.
16. The ICTs are increasingly used to build working strategic and/or operational partnerships with other organisations that have similar vested interests.
Example from The CI Network:
Diversity Matters, Even at a Distance: Evaluating the Impact of Computer-Mediated Communication on Civil Society Participation in the World Summit on the Information Society
by Derrick L. Cogburn
"This study explores the computer-mediated communication (CMC) practices of the transnational civil society organizations involved in the United Nations sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)....Using both quantitative and qualitative data from an international survey and archival research, the study finds that e-mail lists are the primary CMC tools used within the sector, although attempts have been made to introduce more sophisticated applications to aid collaboration. Within the civil society sector we find strong evidence of a readiness to collaborate along several dimensions, including high levels of cognitive and affective trust. The study finds significant civil society participation in global policy networks, with numerous explicit linkages to epistemic communities."
17. The ICTs are increasingly used to participate in networks of like-focused organisations.
Example from The CI Network:
FRAME: Natural Resource Management Network - Global
FRAME is a communication-centred programme working to build knowledge sharing networks of natural resource management (NRM) professionals and to help NRM practitioners and decision makers make greater use of the existing body of knowledge on successful NRM experiences. The programme's main goals are to: foster discussion on emerging trends in environmental and NRM across disciplinary and geographical boundaries, and provide timely and relevant information on innovative and strategic options to address these issues. To reach these goals, the programme initiates NRM field studies, builds institutional partnerships, distributes a newsletter, and offers a knowledge sharing website for the global NRM community. FRAME's assessments not only identify sites where investments in NRM have made an impact in those areas, but also describe the NRM practices and systems in place and identify the "enabling conditions" (such as better communication of knowledge) that contributed to those local investments in NRM. These assessments are typically followed by a workshop to discuss the study findings among key stakeholders at the local and national levels.
18. The ICTs are increasingly used to both provide support to others involved in compatible action and to receive support from such organisations.
Example from The CI Network:
KUMINFO - Ghana
KUMINFO is an integrated geographical information system (GIS) for peri-urban natural resource research that includes information from individual research projects and organisations in Ghana. Maps and digital photographs of streams and villages in the Kwabre District are examples of information available at KUMINFO. Organisations involved in planning, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, might use this data to map water bodies and its quality in Kumasi and surrounding areas. Community members are welcome to use the facilities, as well. In one area, the Chief used the information obtained to enact a law against the cutting of trees, farming, and houses along rivers.
To access "Virtual Change: Indicators for Assessing the Impact of ICTs in Development Research and Extension Division", click here [PDF].
For further information about "Virtual Change: Indicators for Assessing the Impact of ICTs in Development Research and Extension Division", contact: Clare O'Farrell, Communication for Development Officer, FAO at comdev@fao.org
Please consider the possibility of supporting The CI's work through the CI Associates process - for details and sign-up, please click here. Also see Warren Feek's note in The Drum Beat 485. Thank you.
This issue of The Drum Beat was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.
The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.
Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com
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